Minister
Nigerian minister accuses entertainers of promoting abuse of women’s bodies
The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Pauline Tallen, has accused entertainers of promoting abuse of women’s bodies by employing vulgar lyrics and depicting female dancers in a most disdainful manner. Tallen said this while speaking on the theme “My Body is My Own: Claiming the Right to Autonomy and Self-Determination,” at the launch of the State of the World Population 2021 report in Abuja on Tuesday. According to Tallen, entertainers are frustrating the government’s efforts which include tackling the fear and stigma of survivors of violence, weak community and facility referral systems, lack of counselling services for women and girls and the communities as well as seeking justice for victims. “It is almost disheartening to note that while we are confronting these obstacl...
Nigerian government asks judiciary, parliamentary staff to call off strike
The Federal Government has directed members of the striking Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) and the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) to “urgently” call off their over-two-month-old strike. The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, gave the directive in a statement on Tuesday, threatening that the government might be forced to invoke “sections of the Trade Disputes Acts” if the strike persisted longer. The threat is a government’s familiar warning of possible introduction of “no-work-no-pay” policy to break adamant striking workers. “The ministry will not be happy to be pushed into invoking sections of the Trade Disputes Acts capable of eroding all the gains made so far in the negotiations since May 6, 2021,” the statement signed by the ministry of Labou...
Nigeria orders broadcasters not to use Twitter to gather information
Nigerian television and radio stations should not use Twitter to gather information and have to de-activate their accounts, the broadcast authority said following the move to suspend the US social media giant in Africa’s most populous country. Nigeria’s government on Friday said it had suspended Twitter’s activities, two days after the platform removed a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari that threatened to punish secessionists. Nigerian telecoms firms have since blocked access to Twitter. International diplomats responded with a joint statement in support of “free expression and access to information as a pillar of democracy in Nigeria”. Buhari, who was Nigeria’s military ruler in the 1980s, has previously been accused of cracking down on freedom of expression, though his government has ...
NAF chief: Armed forces committed to end insecurity
The Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Oladayo Amao, yesterday declared that the Armed Forces remained committed to ending the crisis of insecurity ravaging the nation. He said the expected delivery of six A-29 Super Tucano fighter jets by the United States in July and two drones from China, would be a “game changer” in the war against insurgency. The position of the air force chief is coming on a day the Minister of Transportation, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, sought the assistance of the Chief of Army Staff, Maj. Gen. Farouk Yahaya, to provide security for train stations and railway construction sites across the country. Speaking at the graduation ceremony of 1,031 recruits of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), Basic Military Training Course 41/2020, Amao affirmed that “the NAF in consonance w...
Ex-Senate president urges Nigerian government to review suspension of Twitter’s operations
Former Senate President Bukola Saraki has reacted to Federal Government’s suspension of the operations of the micro blogging and social networking service, Twitter. Newsmen report Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, had announced the “indefinite” suspension in a statement on Friday by his spokesman Segun Adeyemi. Reacting, Saraki noted that Twitter has become part of the daily lives of youths and also a source of income and livelihood for many youths. He further called for a review of the suspension. “No sir! This should not be the response from the president of a nation with a vibrant youthful population for whom #Twitter is part of their daily lives and a source of their income and livelihood. This must be reviewed,” Saraki tweeted. Get more stories like this on Twitter You Deserve to...
President Buhari orders IGP to reduce insecurity to barest minimum
President Muhammadu Buhari, has ordered Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba to ensure insecurity is reduced to the barest minimum. This is even as the Police Council made up of the President, Vice President, governors, ministers of Police Affairs, Interior and the Federal Capital Territory, confirmed Baba as the IGP. Minister of Police Affairs, Alhaji Maigari Dingyadi, who confirmed the development at the end of the one and half hours meeting, said he was unanimously confirmed. President Buhari had on April 6, appointed Baba as acting the Inspector General of Police. Baba was a Deputy Inspector General of Police before his promotion. Briefing State House Correspondents at the end of the meeting held at the First Lady Conference Room, the main purpose of the meeting was to “get the appo...
Minister: We’ve used 98 percent of coronavirus vaccine in FCT
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Bello, has said his administration had used 98 per cent of the COVID-19 vaccines allocated to the territory. Bello made the disclosure shortly after he took the second jab of COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday in Abuja. The jab was administered on him alongside the FCT Permanent Secretary, Mr Olusade Adesola, and the acting Secretary, FCT Health and Human Services Secretariat, Dr Mohammed Kawu. He expressed delight over the reduction in the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the FCT, and urged health workers to strive to ensure that residents were protected against the virus. The minister admonished FCT residents to avail themselves of any opportunity that was brought forward to them to be vaccinated. “Unless we get a substant...
Nigerian government mulls deployment of GPS to monitor constituency projects, expenditure
The Federal Government, yesterday, considered the deployment of Global Positioning System (GPS) across the six geopolitical zones, in a bid to monitor constituency projects and expenditure. It also considered a bottom-up approach in the siting and location of zonal/constituency projects to enhance and ensure ownership by the constituents. This was contained in a communiqué issued at a 2-day stakeholders’ interactive forum organized by the Ministry of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, yesterday in Abuja. The communiqué which was signed by Simon Tyungu, a Special Adviser to the Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, George Akume, added that ICT platforms should be created for monitoring and evaluation of projects to reduce physical exercise. According to him, “...
Nigerian government approves N9.2 billion premium for civil servants’ life insurance
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the sum of N9.2billion as premium to insurance companies that will manage the group life insurance for federal civil servants in the country. Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed revealed this when he briefed State House correspondents on the outcome of the Council meeting which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Wednesday. He said: “On behalf of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, I will like to report that council today approved the award of contract for the appointment of insurance companies for group life assurance for federal government employees, public servants, para-military and the intelligence community for the year 2021-2022 in the sum of N9, 248. 995, 907. “This premium is for a perio...
Nigerian government kicks as Twitter deletes President Buhari’s tweet
The Federal Government has kicked against Twitter that on Wednesday deleted President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet that spoke of treating people in the “language they understand.” The Presidency questioned the role of Twitter in the secessionist agitation in the South-East following the social media’s deletion of a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari evoking the memories of the civil war to threaten “those misbehaving” in the region. The president had said in his series of tweets on his handle @mbuhari on Tuesday: “Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.” Twitter has now deleted th...
Group urges President Buhari to suspend NDDC forensic audit
The South South Reawakening Group, has called for the immediate suspension of the ongoing forensic audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), describing it as a “circus of corruption”. Converner of the group, Joseph Ambakederimo, in a statement, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint a board for the NDDC to start a new phase for the development of the region. According to them, it was no longer news that the forensic audit ordered by the President has now been turned into “a circus for mismanagement and misappropriation of public funds to oil the machinery of political interests of a few, while the region and its people continue to suffer the perpetual psychological torture of these buccaneers.” The group recalled that the NDDC is still presently being run by an interim s...
German foreign minister: EU veto ‘hostage’-taking on foreign policy must end
Germany’s foreign minister said on Monday the European Union should abolish the right of individual member states to veto foreign policy measures as the 27-nation bloc could not allow itself to be “held hostage”. His comments, which came days after a more junior official criticised Hungary by name, reflect growing frustration in Berlin at the way in which EU member countries can prevent the bloc from acting in matters on which almost all members agree. “We can’t let ourselves be held hostage by the people who hobble European foreign policy with their vetoes,” Heiko Maas told a conference of Germany’s ambassadors in Berlin. “If you do that then sooner or later you are risking the cohesion of Europe. The veto has to go, even if that means we can be outvoted.” His remarks amount to a highly u...